Constance Woodhall
Overview Constance Margaret Woodhall (Dec 5, 3445-Feb 29, 3521) was a Dranish politician of the right-wing Rally for the Republic who formerly served as her party's Chairwoman and Minister of Internal Affairs (later also Trade and Industry). She is a great-granddaughter of legendary Prime Minister Margaret Woodhall. Life Woodhall was born in 3445 in Llwybr Hawl (Loren Province) as the daughter of Herbert Woodhall (3408-3464) and his wife Amalia (3411-3450), who were working as lawyers and businessmen. The family's fortune of several billions allowed Constance a privileged upbringing and high-quality education in the city's finest private school, from which she graduated in 3463, albeit only with mediocre grades. When Herbert Woodhall died in a plane crash while on a business trip in 3464, Constance, aged 19, became an orphan, but inherited the family's massive fortune and a huge mansion were she henceforth lived alongside 20 servants and, as an investigative journalist later revealed, pursued a lavish luxury lifestyle in the ensuing years while neither studying nor working. Political Career Woodhall was nominated by the RPR, the successor of her great-grandmother's party, to stand for Governor of Magadonia Province, the most right-wing region in Dranland and a safe bet for the RPR. During the campaign, she turned out extremely gaffe-prone and once promised to eliminate income taxes, abolish the minimum wage and abolish tariffs, apparently unaware of the fact that all these issues were federal responsibilities. "I haven't really read the job description, but I promise to catch up with all the things I'm supposed to know when I'm elected Governor", was her response to a journalist's critical question on her lack of knowledge. On another occasion, when asked about her huge inherited wealth and her personal views on private charity, she replied that "I'm no socialist, so I don't really donate anything and rather keep my money to myself. Redistribution is a vice in itself, even if you do it voluntarily. I don't really believe in altruism." RFR leadership hopeful Lawrence Steele publicly scolded her for the comment, saying that "it is absolutely counter-productive to say only socialists donate to charity. She's on a good track of proving the lies the left is spreading about libertarians as materialistic egoists right." She nevertheless won the election with 32% of the vote, leading the field clearly. Her election was nevertheless controversial. Dr. Francesca dos Santos (DCP) scoffed: "Is Constance Woodhall the best person the RFR can nominate to become Governor of Magadonia? This rich, lazy, luxury-loving dumb blonde bimbo has achieved nothing in her life, has no political experience or skills and has little in the way of personal moral values. It is an insult to the people of Magadonia that they have had Constance Woodhall thrust upon them like this. She is so inappropriate for the position of Governor than even Benjamin Benandez - God forbid! - would probably be an improvement." Governor of Magadonia Woodhall soon sparked controversy when she legalized nuclear power in Magadonia, which was backed by most major parties, including DCP and KSDP, but opposed by the left-wing SJP. She further divided the public when she proposed to set up a statue of former Prime Minister Jacqueline Townsend in front of the Magadonian Parliament at the peak of a controversial discussion about her legacy in 3472. There was also a public outcry when Townsend invited revisionist historian Professor Pastora Hernandez to a public event in Magadonia, which she explained as follows: " (...) judging by how much the left hates Prof. Hernandez, she must be a formidable woman who seems to hit the right nail on the head with her historical theory." '' Her approval ratings declined steadily, as she was not only controversial but also extremely gaffe-prone, exemplified by several acts of her such as reading speeches from paper and not knowing the Province's largest city. Recall and Re-Election At the peak of her unpopularity, the SPJ under Opposition Leader Jamie Walsh enforced a recall election by collecting more signatures than the required threshold. Throughout the early days of the race, Walsh retained a slim lead but both candidates were altogether very unpopular. The tide turned when the media reported supposed irregularities in collecting signatures for the recall on the part of Walsh, and as these allegations became clearer and clearer, his own party withdrew its endorsement for his gubernatorial bid. Woodhall added to the fire by launching several attack ads including the ''Red Magadonia Ad: In the ad, an old man from the early 36th century tells a story of what happened after Walsh was elected and Magadonia ended as 'poor as Valdor'. A policeman hears the old man and butts him the head with a rifle demanding that he sing the new provincial anthem 'Sweet Valdor' and sign a petition calling for Magadonia and Valdor to unified. The young blond policeman then smiles and hands the old man a carton of milk and crackers. In the end, Woodhall won the election by a crushing margin, winning 78.1% of the votes amid low turnout of around 28%, which her campaign claimed was due to the electorate considering the vote a farce altogether. In September of the same year, after her approval ratings had soared from 33 to 48 percent, she announced running for Parliament in the general election of 3476. In Parliament In her campaign, she sought to appeal to conservatives and libertarians alike by emphasizing their joint opposition to left-wing politics: "I'm a political libertarian and cultural conservative - this means that I believe the traditional values I and we all cherish emerged from the people themselves, not the state which some claim must protect them. This is the wrong approach, we must rather get the government out of our way to preserve our proud heritage and culture and protect it from social engineering." In the general election of 3476, she won an outright majority in her constituency Gwennburg, and was re-elected in the snap polls one year later. In 3478, she ran for RFR Chairwoman, but was defeated by Graham Breckinridge. Constance Woodhall would often defy the party line in the upcoming years, and made some more shots at the leadership, losing in 3485 but succeeding in 3491. As RFR Leader When she was elected Chairwoman, she sought to balance the interests of the dominant hard-core minarchists and her own, conservative-libertarian populist agenda, saying that "I won't turn the RFR into the GNP again" but also adding that "I'll implement a broader idea of libertarianism." While she was known to be sympathetic towards co-operation with the conservative parties, she criticized them over their stance on the Dranish Autonomous Zone intervention, which she perceived as a subtle imperialist venture pushed by the radical Werin Deg, which even called for the annexation of parts of Kazulia to be included in their idea of a "Draddwyr homeland". Woodhall said on the issue: "(...) under President Woodhall, Dranland won't touch one bit of Kazulian land. Under President Woodhall, there will be no 'homelands' for certain ethnic groups, there will only be privately owned land which we will protect and respect. Under President Duvalle and Foreign Minister Iceling, however, there might be imperialism and even war. I'm sure neither the Kazulians nor the Dranish would approve of that." Woodhall's bids for the Presidency in 3492, 3494, 3495 and 3496 were all unsuccessful, but her party scored acceptable results most of the time, enabling her to remain in charge of the chairpersonship. As Interior Minister, she was credited for banning the Draniano extremist FERN which had agitated from the Dranish Autonomous Zone. After the fallout of RFR and the left-liberal parties, Woodhall led the opposition until 3500, when her party scored a landslide victory and Earl Branstead-Smith was elected President. In Branstead-Smith's administration, she became Minister of Trade and Industry, a position in which she championed privatization and deregulation as well as vocal defense of capitalism, which she defended against communist accusations of causing low wages and unemployment: "I'd be all for better wages and prices for workers and consumers, but obstinate unions and socialist pieces of legislation that we haven't been able to scrap yet are responsible for some dire conditions in our economy", the Minister claimed. "By giving unions the privilege of collective agreements over working hours with employers, we allow them to push wages for their cronies way above market level in relation to the number of working hours, meaning that other, especially non-unionized workers, won't find jobs and production will decline, resulting in higher prices. Unions should only be able to act on behalf of their own members, and individual workers should be allowed to set up individual contracts with employers without needing the approval of union overlords." In 3506, 500,000 party members filed a petition calling for leadership elections to be held, which Woodhall reluctantly agreed to. After some consideration, she decided not to seek another term as RFR leader after 15 years in office, and she stepped down. After that, she served two more years as Minister of Trade and Industry, implementing further deregulation of sectors such as postal services and infrastructure. In the 3508 elections, she did not contest her seat again and retired from politics. She is remembered as a main architect of the neoliberal reform wave the nation went through after the right won a stable majority in 3500. Election History < Sep 3472 • Magadonian Gubernatorial Recall Election, March 3475 • Sep 3476 > |- !colspan=2|Parties !Candidate !Votes (No) !Votes (%) !Result |- |style="background:#00008B"| |RFR (endorsed by DCP) |Constance M. Woodhall||4,382,479||78.1||'Elected' |- |style="background:#FF0000"| |SJP/Independent |Jamie Walsh||942,709||16.8|| |- !colspan=3|Total!!5,611,369 !Turnout !28.8% |} Category:Dranian people Category:RFR politicians Category:Libertarianism